Basque PAU Physics

It is a written paper. You answer multi-part calculation problems and short conceptual questions, and in some sections you choose among alternative question sets. Expect to show working, not just final answers. The official admissions body publishes the exact structure and any choice rules for the current year.

Duration and scoring are set each year by the Basque university admissions authority and are published on its official site. Do not rely on memory or third-party summaries. Check the current call's documentation for the time allowed, the weight of each question and the pass or scoring rules.

It is a standard university entrance level paper: mostly routine applications of laws, with a few multi-step problems that combine topics. Difficulty comes from time pressure and from precision in signs, units and significant figures, not from exotic theory. Practising past papers is the most reliable way to calibrate the level.

Retake rules are set by the official admissions body and can change between calls. Check its website for whether and when you may resit, how many attempts are allowed, and how the best mark is used. This independent guide does not state a retake policy.

Start with gravitation and electrostatics because they share the same field-and-potential reasoning. Then move to magnetism and induction, which build on forces and fields. After that take mechanical waves, then light and geometric optics, then modern physics. Finish with laboratory data analysis and integrate everything through timed past papers.

Sign errors in fields and potentials, forgetting to convert units to SI, mixing up the direction of induced currents, and losing marks by not stating the law being applied. Many also run out of time because they spend too long on one problem. Practise writing concise, complete solutions under a clock.

Yes, for the core laws: Newton's gravitation, Coulomb, field and potential of point charges, Lorentz force, Faraday–Lenz, the wave equation, Snell's law, the thin-lens equation and the photoelectric equation. Know when each applies and what each symbol means. Deriving a formula from first principles is often worth marks.

Do them closed-book and timed first, then mark strictly against the official solutions, noting every lost mark and its cause. Re-do the questions you missed a week later. Group papers by topic early on, then switch to full mixed papers in the final weeks to build stamina and time management.

The Basque university admissions authority publishes the current curriculum, exam structure, dates, fees and scoring rules on its official website. Always use that site as the authoritative source. This page is an independent study resource and does not represent or speak for the official body.